OpenSUSE Leap 42.2 Finally

I finally got around to doing a badly needed install, upgrading from openSUSE 13.1 to Leap 42.2. Used the net install option as usual and was pleased to see that when the install was finished (about 45 min) there weren't the large number of updates to be applied that there were in the past. I ran the Online Update option twice to be sure, but there was only one patch required (don't remember for which package). I guess the initial install had up-to-date packages--that wasn't the case in past years when you'd have an update process that ran as long as the original installation. So that meant the install time was faster than I expected.

Oddly, this is the first time in years that my printer wasn't detected during the installation. I may have missed something during the setup (which has changed a bit) or it was just a fluke, but I did get the printer set up when the install was complete. There were a couple of new, good things I noticed--the Expert partition setup recognized an existing /home and automatically selected the mount-don't-format option--previously I had to select that manually. It also had an import user option that I decided to try and that seems to have worked well, although in the past I was always successful just setting up a user profile with the same username and password in the new install.

Your install inspired me to try the net install for SUSE Tumbleweed in VirtualBox. After about 2100 packages it was all done in about 40 minutes.
SUSE is very nice - although I haven't played with it very much and don't know all the details and CLI stuff. The YaST Control Center is exceptionally fine - just like the one in Mageia. I went with the Plasma desktop which is also great looking:

The Guest Additions worked right out of the box which makes SUSE Tumbleweed a keeper in my books. Now to do an update and see if it survives.

You probably won't need the CLI for routine use. YaST and the Settings Mgr for whatever desktop environment you use (I use xfce on my old hardware) will probably do whatever you need. I used to have to run hplip for my printer/copier from command line and a miserable pain it was, too. Now it runs from a selection in YaST's printer configuration.
EDIT: It won't matter to you in VB but I always have to go into Security Center Users section in YaST and enable "magic keys"--openSUSE doesn't do that by default. I don't need skinny elephants often, but I like to know the option is there if I need it.

I have found Tumbleweed to be a bit unstable. Updates are not working because of Internet mirrors not being synced all that well. I have switched over to Leap 42.2 which I hope is more stable. There are enough aggravations with running in VirtualBox without instability in the distro.

Leap 42.2 has been completely stable for me. I don't recall ever having a problem with SUSE stability back to v9.x which is where I started, although I've never tried running in VirtualBox. I've had several rounds of security updates since the install without any problems.

I have found Tumbleweed to be a bit unstable. Updates are not working because of Internet mirrors not being synced all that well. I have switched over to Leap 42.2 which I hope is more stable. There are enough aggravations with running in VirtualBox without instability in the distro.

Can I come and live in your shed mate.

InstallARCHYou'll never need to install it again
"I did and I'm really happy"~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My run with openSUSE has stretched to a little over 5 years now, starting with 12.1, now running 42.2. No stability issues during all that time; a few issues with unavailable software, but in most cases the software in question has become available by a few months after the releases.

I have not tried Tumbleweed.

Because of YaST, it seems that in openSUSE I use the command line less than with other distros.

I'd prefer a longer support period; the support life cycle is currently about 18 months (https://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime). It isn't quite clear to me how the upcoming (early) release of 42.3 will affect the 42.2 lifetime; from that "Lifetime" page:

Quote

Leap 42.2 - will be maintained until 6 months after 42.3 (EXPECTED Second Quarter of 2018)

But looks like 42.3 is actually coming this summer. I'm thinking that I'll stick with 42.2 and skip 42.3, probably.

Survived another update. I had some trouble with disk space running out and had to install the kernel update separately but it didn't break the system as far as I can see. Still alive in VirtualBox on Windows.

Survived another update. I had some trouble with disk space running out and had to install the kernel update separately but it didn't break the system as far as I can see. Still alive in VirtualBox on Windows.

This has happened to me on occasion, with VMs I wanted to keep for awhile. Fortunately, there's an easy way to enlarge the virtual disk, and it's way quicker than re-installing the VM on a new, larger virtual disk:

Thanks for this. I'll look into it if I have the same problem next time. It might have been swap space since memory is limited and this update was rather massive - 2 browsers and the kernel and all its associated packages.